Water polo team needs another split

Thursday

Nov 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - After getting a much-needed split last weekend, the Pacific men's water polo team will need another one this weekend to earn a top-five seed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament later this month.

Jagdip Dhillon

STOCKTON - After getting a much-needed split last weekend, the Pacific men's water polo team will need another one this weekend to earn a top-five seed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament later this month.

The Tigers (12-8, 3-3 MPSF) are now ranked No. 5 in the country by the Collegiate Water Polo Association after beating then-No. 4 UC Santa Barbara 12-5 last Friday, before falling to No. 1 UCLA 13-10. Pacific will travel to No. 3 Stanford at 5 p.m. Friday before hosting No. 4 Cal at noon Sunday at Chris Kjeldsen Pool. Final seeding will be determined by other results, but Pacific will need at least one victory to clinch a top-five seed.

"These should be tough matchups, but we feel we've been playing good water polo and we control our own destiny," Pacific coach James Graham said. "We're right there with these teams."

It won't be easy as Pacific lost to both schools on the same day earlier this season. The Tigers fell 10-9 in overtime to Cal and 9-5 to Stanford on Sept. 30.

Junior Balazs Erdelyi leads the country in goals (71) and goals per game (3.74), while junior goalkeeper Alex Malkis leads the country in saves per game (12.26).

Women's volleyball coach Greg Gibbons bolstered his roster Wednesday during National Signing Day by adding four players.

Christensen is a 6-foot-4 middle blocker and was a top-100 ranked high senior by prep-volleyball.com.

Wilk be joining the program in January and participate in the new beach volleyball program next spring, while the others will be arriving next August.

The Spanos Center will host five events over the next six days with three basketball games and two volleyball matches.

The women's basketball team will open the stretch by hosting Nevada at 7 p.m. today, before the women's volleyball squad wraps up its season with matches against No. 7 Hawaii at 7 p.m. Friday and Long Beach State at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The men's basketball team will then host Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. Monday, before the women's basketball team hosts Santa Clara at 7 p.m. Tuesday.